Jonathan Coleman

7 SEPTEMBER, 2015

Patient portal uptake reaches 75,000 milestone

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says there has been a significant increase in the number of patient portal users.

The secure online portal site enables patients to manage aspects of their own healthcare such as booking appointments, requesting repeat prescriptions and messaging clinical staff directly.

“It is great to see patients and practices responding positively to the awareness campaign we launched in April,” says Dr Coleman.

“The number of patients using patient portals has nearly doubled from 40,000 to 75,000, and we expect to surpass 100,000 before the end of the year.

“More patients can now access their personal health information at a time and place that’s convenient to them. This is a great step towards enabling New Zealanders to manage more of their own healthcare.

“More general practices have also joined the move to offer patient portals with 181 practices now offering this service, up from 132 in April.

“These practices have seen the benefits of patient portals with GPs and nurses able to spend more time with patients and less time spent on admin.”

Earlier this year, Dr Coleman approved a $3 million funding boost to give more New Zealanders access to patient portals. This included $500,000 for an awareness campaign.

The remaining funding will be spent on tools and support for general practices signing up to use patient portals. The National Health IT Board has provided a modelling tool that will help GPs see the financial and business benefits of offering the service.

For more information on patient portals visit www.patientportals.co.nz

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